Acute Mountain Sickness....Rescue

Well, the adventure continues here in Nepal. We have hiked up the same river valley for 10 days and took a rest day in Manang at 11,600 feet. We continued up the valley to a beautiful town Yak Kharka at 13,000 feet on our way to Thorung La Pass at 17,750 feet. We awoke and ate breakfast and noticed that our Sherpa guide and friend Ang Phurba over slept a little and wasn't acting himself. We assumed it was a hangover from the local wine(Raksi). We climbed 600 feet to the village of Letdar and asked Ang if he wanted water. He began shaking and appeared to be having a stroke and feel off a 7 foot embankment into a garden near the town. We were quite alarmed and ran down to get him to his feet. He was completely in delirium and forgot all of our names and didn't know where he was. We got him some soup and water and walked about a hundred meters and he was almost falling over. We decided it was imperative to get him down to the clinic in Manang and decrease elevation immediately. Paul and our porter Pasang went down with Ang and tried to keep him from falling off 1000 foot cliffs into the massive river valley below. Seth ran ahead to Thorang Phedi(7km) at 14,700 feet to inform Bogue that Ang was sick and we needed help getting Ang down safely. The brothers ran down from Thorang Phedi to Manang(15km) and picked up Logan, Nima, and Minh on the way who were waiting at Letdar. After a brutal descent with a full pack of about 22 kilos we arrived at Manang. Paul informed us that the doctors diagnosed our guide with Acute Mountain Sickness and could have easily died if he stayed at elevation any longer. They ran diagnostics on him and gave him diamox and other medications for stabilization. The doctors concurred that we made the correct decision and saved his life. Doctors orders were to have him rest for the night and then head back down the river valley to Beseshar and then to Kathmandu....his trek was over. It was one of the craziest and grueling days of our lives with our guide almost dieing and group members traversing over 23kilometers. In the end Ang had passed out 4 times, almost swallowed his tongue, and went into delirium on many occasions. Luckily, Ang is doing fine now and is back in Kathmandu running more tests at an altitude clinic there. Unfortunately, it put the trek back 2 days, but we are all healthy and safe and we our proceeding with caution up to Thorung La Pass. The Fellowship started with 8 members and is now down to 7......Hurry you fools!